Days Go By
by Pandora of Ithilien
Summary: What if Gwen had jumped through the Rift with Hart in the season opener? And what if she came back, two years later, only a little different than last time? The Rift gives gifts to those who pass through it sometimes...
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Torchwood is not mine. 

_**Prologue – Departures and Returns:**_ "Tell Jack – tell Jack I – " Tell Jack she what? And with Ianto there... she couldn't say it. So she left it at that. Hart was rambling about last-minute rescues, but she knew they couldn't wait. So she leapt into the Rift, pulling Hart with her. 

Jack and Owen arrived less than a minute after Hart and Gwen had gone. The look on Jack's face when he realized they were too late... none of them had seen him look like that before, and no one had any idea what to do about it. There wasn't anything they _could_ do, in the end, because they couldn't change the past. 

* * *

It burned. Oh God, couldn't it just be over already? Or maybe it was, and she was in Hell. Suzie had said death was cold black emptiness, but maybe it was different for each person? She'd always had nightmares about fire, about fire and something else, something... ghosts, or maybe zombies, a woman with blonde hair and a man with blue eyes... Oh God couldn't this stop? 

And then, all of a sudden, it was over. She was lying on her back on what felt like grass, and she was almost certainly still alive. She didn't think being dead hurt this much. Every muscle ached, and her breath came out in a moan. "You're hurt worse than I expected," said a light male voice. She opened her eyes tiredly, looking up into chocolate brown eyes. The face was attractive, matching the eyes. He wore a pinstriped suit and a rather.. unusual smile. "Hello there Gwen Cooper. I'm the Doctor." 

* * *

Two weeks after Gwen's disappearance – Jack would not say her death; he didn't think he could handle it – Martha Jones came to work for Torchwood. She arrived to a broken team. The loss of one of their own when it had been so unnecessary, the way Jack in particular was affected by it, had left them all shaken. Martha had seen this before, and she wasn't too worried about Owen, Tosh, or Ianto; they'd pull through. But Jack... she'd seen the man after a year at the Master's mercy, and only now did she see him as broken. Who had Gwen Cooper been to mean so much? And was she trying, once again, to step into shoes she could never fill? 

* * *

"Are you sure about this?" Gwen asked uncertainly, looking at the Doctor. 

"Positive." 

"But it's been two years! What if – " 

"It'll be two years there. It's supposed to be, Gwen, trust me. I'm a Time Lord; I can make sure of these things. But you have to go now, or it won't work, the timeline will be changed, and the universe will fall apart." She wondered how he could say all that so calmly. 

She scowled at the man who'd popped in and out of her life for the past two years. He'd never stopped her from trying jump after jump, though obviously he'd known none of them would work. So she'd found herself in all sorts of times, from the Tudors to the pre-Roman days to the 1940s and Nazi bombs. Currently, it was the 60s, in San Francisco, which also had a Rift, albeit a far less active one. In keeping with the time, she wore a tie-dyed T-shirt and bellbottoms, with her hair loose and nearly waist-long. She drew the line at love beads, however. "No pressure then," she said irritably and jumped with his chuckle in her ears.

* * *

"OK, you're almost on top of it, guys," Tosh said over Owen's and Ianto's headsets. The two men were checking a sudden surge in Rift activity over in the park. 

"Nearly on top of her, you mean," Ianto said as they rounded a corner and saw a woman lying face down on the ground. She wasn't moving around, but they could see she was breathing. "Looks like someone from the 60s."

"An American one at any rate," Owen agreed. "I wonder what she's doing here." He walked over and checked her pulse, though they knew she was alive. "Strong, steady pulse, she's just knocked out, I guess."

Back at the Hub, Tosh and Jack were at the console. Martha was nearby, listening. They heard rustling – presumably turning the woman over. Then – "Bloody Hell." 

"Owen?" Jack snapped. "What is it?" There was no answer. "Owen!" 

"Jack..." That was Ianto. "It's Gwen." 

A/N: So, I hope you liked the intro. I promise, I'll start explaining things in the next chapter – though not everything, of course. 


	2. Reactions

Disclaimer: Not mine.

_**Chapter 1 – Reactions:**_ They brought her back to the Hub – what else could they do? It was Gwen, wearing vintage clothes and with really long hair, but still Gwen. She didn't wake up when they got her back, so they put her in the medical bay. Owen didn't do the examination – Martha said he couldn't, he was too attached.

She seemed fine, except for being unconscious. Brain waves were in a normal sleeping pattern, heart rate steady. There was no reason why she shouldn't wake up at any second, but she didn't. Maybe it was the Rift energy running through her, Martha thought. Because that was the only thing unusual about Gwen; she had huge amounts of Rift energy running through her. There was no previous incident on record of someone having so much.

Martha sighed as she finished the examination, wondering what, exactly, she was going to tell the others. She rubbed her temples, trying to fend off a headache. Just then, a pair of arms snaked around her waist. "Alright there, love?" Ianto murmured in her ear. She sighed, leaning back against him.

"I'm not sure. I mean, I never met Gwen, but from the stories you told me, I feel like I do. And I wish there was something to explain what's happening here, but I've got nothing."

"We don't expect miracles from you."

"You might not." But Jack would. The Doctor had Rose, Martha thought, and Jack had Gwen. That was part of why Ianto had ended things with Jack, because he'd known that. And because she'd seen the Doctor's reaction when Rose's name came up, she'd seen it in Jack. She wanted to give her friend good news, but all she had was one fact that only increased the mystery. Damn it all to hell.

* * *

Owen and Tosh were alone in the main part of the Hub. Ianto and Martha were in the medical bay, and Jack had holed up in his office. They were silent, uncertain as to what to say, or even to think.

"What do you think happened to her?" Tosh ventured finally, when the silence became too heavy to bear.

"No idea," Owen said, shaking his head. "I guess she must've been sent back in time, or something. She must have been trying to get back." He wondered what kind of determination – or desperation – that would have to take. But then, this was Gwen they were talking about. The one who'd pulled them all together after Jack's disappearance, whose own disappearance had nearly shattered them all again. And what had she been through in the two years since? Did they even want to know?

"I just hope she's OK, once she's been back awhile," Tosh whispered. Owen put an arm around her shoulder – he didn't know why, it just seemed like the thing to do.

"Me too, Tosh, me too."

* * *

Jack sat alone in his office, staring at the glass wall but not really seeing it. Gwen was back. It didn't seem possible. He'd told himself she was gone, had replayed all the times in his head that he now saw as wasted chances. He'd always figured there'd be another chance. Let her be normal as long as possible. He wasn't normal, he wanted her to have normal. She deserved it. But then he'd lost her, and he wondered why the hell he was still alive. Even what Rose had done shouldn't have been able to cause him to survive the pain he'd gone through. And now... she was back. He couldn't be that lucky; he didn't deserve it. Which meant this miracle was going to be, if possible, worse than what had gone before.

* * *

She dreamed of fire again. Of fire and ghosts, voices in her head and images of things that hadn't happened yet. She dreamed of a blonde woman with kind brown eyes and a man with sad, piercing blue ones. "I'm sorry," he whispered. Sorry for what? What had happened? What was happening to her?

Gwen's eyes flew open, and she gasped for air. The machines she was hooked up to went wild.

A/N: OK, I know it's not what I promised, but this is what the muse came up with. I try not to go against that too much.


End file.
